Kotaku: Monkey Island

The Creators of Monkey Island & Day of the Tentacle Are Trying To Make Another Old-School Adventure Game

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:59:00 EST

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Tim Schafer, an adventure game legend for his days working on old Lucasarts titles, has just put his Double Fine studio to work on a Kickstarter project. To "make an old-school graphic adventure". Oh boy. More »

Break Out the Safety Scissors for This Paper Monkey Island Port

Evan Narcisse — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST

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The Secret of Monkey Island stands as a classic of the adventure genre and boasts ports to various and sundry platforms, including PlayStation Network, iOS and Xbox Live. You can now add paper to that list, as seen in the video above which shows off a meticulous cut-and-past recreation of the 1990 Lucasarts DOS classic. Impressive work! More »

Enough Zelda! Here Are 5 Less-Common Video Game Themes Orchestras Should Try

Kirk Hamilton — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:20:00 EDT

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From Zelda to Final Fantasy, we've seen plenty of dedicated video game orchestral concerts over the years. Only a week or so ago, there was a huge Legend of Zelda concert in Los Angeles, and next week will see the release of a collection of video game music from the London Philharmonic. More »

Adventure Games Give us a Lesson In Fine Art

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 06:00:00 EDT

Some of the world's greatest paintings collide with some of the world's greatest adventure games in this collection by Aled Lewis. More »

Monkey Island Remakes Coming Back Once Again

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 06:15:00 EDT

The high-def remakes of Lucasarts' first two Monkey Island games are being combined in the one box and sold at retail. Included as a sweetener will be concept art, soundtracks and, best of all, material from an abortive attempt at making a Monkey Island animated movie. More »

"This is essentially Night Trap, this game."

Drew Cohen — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:00:00 EDT

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Is L.A. Noire—despite its running, gunning and vehicular cruising—essentially an elaboration on the point-and-click adventure game? Some critics and commenators have suggested that the title has more in common with Monkey Island than Grand Theft Auto IV, with the crucial difference being that L.A. Noire (unlike the adventure games of yesteryear) allows you to advance despite having made blunders. More »

The Smithsonian Has Picked the Games of Its Art of Video Games Exhibit

Mike Epstein — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:20:00 EDT

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The Smithsonian American Art Museum revealed the winners of its public vote to decide what games will be featured in their exhibit, The Art of Video Games, today. The exhibit creates a visual history of the evolution of gaming from its humble beginnings through the present. The vote, which took place between February and April, helped to pick the majority of the exhibit, with only a few iconic selections guaranteed entry. More »

Monkey Island Honoured With...Porn Game Tribute

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 06:30:00 EST

Monkey Island? More like Spunky Island. More »

How Appropriate, You Fight Like A Boy Who Never Grows Up

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:30:00 EST

Monkey Island's Guybrush Threepwood gets a lesson in swordplay he can't talk his way out of. By Aled Lewis, as seen on GamOvr. More »

See Guybrush Threepwood In Action; Learn How To Unlock Him

Owen Good — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 16:00:00 EDT

Spoiler Alert. On the next page you'll see video of the location of the Guybrush Threepwood costume holocron in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. You'll also get detailed instructions on finding it, and see Threepkiller in action. More »

Will We Get More Monkey Island From Monkey Island's Creators?

Brian Crecente — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:40:00 EDT

When news hit that Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer were working together again at the same studio, all thoughts seemed to shift to Monkey Island. More »

Humor Finds Hope in Indie Game Development

Brian Crecente — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EDT

Humor in video games can be a brutally serious thing. More »

Not All Pirates Were As Nice As Guybrush Threepwood

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:30:00 EDT

The release this week of Monkey Island 2: Special Edition has many people revisiting the lighter side of piracy in the Caribbean. If only real pirates had been that funny! More »

Lucasarts, This Monkey Island 2 Trailer Was A TERRIBLE Idea

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EDT

Why? Because now, as nice as the special, revamped 2010 remake of Monkey Island 2 looks, I want it to look like this clip instead. More »

Video Game Sound Has Come A Long Way, Baby

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:30:00 EDT

It may seem ridiculous now, but there once was a time when it was tough work getting sound out of a PC. We've come a long way since then, something this clip does a good job of reminding us. More »

LeChuck Piece Makes All Other Tattoos Walk The Plank

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 07:30:00 EDT

Not sure how we missed this tattoo of Monkey Island antagonist LecChuck last year. Maybe it was so fantastic it burned clean through our collective consciousness. As seen on Geekologie. More »

Some Good News, And Bad News, For Mac Users

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:30:00 EST

Which do you want first, Mac users? Bad news? OK, bad news first: the upcoming Starcraft II beta won't be gracing the Mac later this month. For now, it's PC only. Sorry. Now for the good news! More »

Monkey Island: The Deleted Scenes

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:30:00 EST

Movies have deleted scenes, everyone knows that. But it's rare we see deleted game scenes, because they're normally just 1s and 0s, and if they're not in the final game, we don't see them. Unless we're talking Monkey Island! More »

You Draw Like A Dairy Farmer

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:20:00 EDT

Here's something to shiver the timbers of Monkey Island fans the seven seas over: a poster, available for sale, drawn by Lucasarts fan favourite (and Sam & Max creator) Steve Purcell. More »

Monkey Island Episode 3: Screenshots & Release Date Ahoy!

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:00:00 EDT

Telltale's third Monkey Island episode will be out September 29. Here are some screenshots. One may look a little different to the others...that's because it's from this short flash movie, which is what the entire game should have looked like. More »

Scene From PAX: Ron Gilbert Inspires

Stephen Totilo — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:20:46 EDT

Wil Wheaton was a hero. Online porn was primitive. His parents got him a computer when he was a kid that had 8K of RAM. Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island co-creator Ron Gilbert is on stage at PAX reminiscing. More »

Argentine TV Warns World of Monkey Island's Grog Recipe

Owen Good — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:30:00 EDT

Skepticism takes a holiday in Argentina, where three TV personalities - one of them a doctor - break the news that kids are mixing an alcoholic drink recipe that includes kerosene and axle grease - aka Grog from Monkey Island. More »

Monkey Island: Episode Two Screens Wash Ashore

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:00:00 EDT

The second island of Telltale's take on Monkey Island will be out on PC this Thursday. My, how time flies. In the meantime, here are some new screens. More »

It's About Time For The Second Monkey Island Episode

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:30:00 EDT

Telltale's episodic adventure games aren't terribly long, so if you bought it, you should have finished the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island by now. Meaning you're about set to move onto the second episode. More »

If Only Monkey Island 2: Special Edition Looked This Good

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:30:00 EDT

It's not that we don't think Monkey Island: Special Edition looked bad. It looks great! But if it had looked as good as this fan mock-up, it would have looked greater. More »

Monkey Island Comes To Wii...Today!

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:30:00 EDT

Pretty sure that regardless of where you are on this rotating ball of dirt, as you're reading this, it's Monday, July 27. And that means the new Monkey Island will be out on Wii today. More »

No One Will Forget This LeChuck vs Threepwood Statue

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:40:00 EDT

Gotta love this Monkey Island renaissance. Not only does it get us new Monkey Island games, it gets us new Monkey Island merch. And nice merch to boot! More »

Monkey Island, Now On Your iPhone

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:30:00 EDT

Hey, kids! Time to put that iPhone (or iPod Touch!) to good use, as Lucasarts have just released the rather excellent The Secret of Monkey Island: Special edition for Apple's handhelds. More »

The Secret Of Monkey Island SE Micro-Review: Still Fights Like A Cow

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:30:00 EDT

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is a tough one to review. It's not really fair to review the game, is it? That's not fair. The game's 19 years old, and is one of the best ever made. More »

Madballs, Monkey Island Roll To XBLA This Wednesday

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EDT

Xbox Live Arcade gets a double dose of nostalgia this week, thanks to the addition of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition and Madballs in... Babo: Invasion, two games that will be available for download as of Wednesday. More »

Why It's Hard To Make Today's Games Funny

Mike Fahey — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:00:26 EDT

Video games have been generating laughter since the days of text-based adventures. Can today's more complicated titles keep up with the comedy of their beloved point-and-click ancestors? More »

Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1 Preview: Guybrush Sails Again

AJ Glasser — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:20:00 EDT

Telltale Games aims to bring the comedy, adventure and swashbuckling of the classic Monkey Island games to a whole new audience – and to that end, they just drop you right into the action with Launch of the Screaming Narwhal. More »

Lucasarts "Want To Do" More Adventure Remakes

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:30:00 EDT

After what feels like a decade of asking for it, Lucasarts have finally begun to re-release their classic adventure games, starting with Fate of Atlantis on Wii (albeit bundled with Staff of Kings) and a Monkey Island remake. More »

The Making Of Monkey Island

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:30:00 EDT

With both a new Monkey Island and a remake of the original on the way, people once again have the classic series on the brain. What better time, then, to catch up on where it all started! More »

These Monkey Island Sneakers Fight Like A Dairy Farmer

Luke Plunkett — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 01:30:00 EDT

Yeah. More custom sneakers. Don't like 'em? Then you're not looking at the damn picture, because these are Monkey Island Chuck Taylors. More »

Whither Monkey Island: 'Puzzles Are For Geezers'?

Maggie Greene — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:40:00 EDT

Are the ridiculous, wild goose chase puzzles of classic adventure games obsolete? Michael Abbott at the Brainy Gamer grudgingly says they may be — "A revealing slap in the face awaits the - shall we say "veteran" - gamer who hands an old adventure game to a young gamer with a hearty recommendation and an assurance of blissful gaming in store." The response is likely to be 'Is this supposed to be fun?' Now, I know plenty of people who still remember fondly games like Monkey Island and other classic adventure games, including their oftentimes bizarre and lengthy puzzles, but: More »

Ron Gilbert on Episodic Gaming and the Film Industry

Maggie Greene — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Ron Gilbert is probably best known for his work at LucasArts, where he worked on such favorites as Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Day Of The Tentacle. Most recently, he's worked on Penny Arcade Adventures and has a forthcoming title called DeathSpank. Gamasutra sat down for a somewhat lengthy interview, discussing the episodic model, working within the current industry framework, and moving outside the current studio framework into a more 'Hollywood' type model. On this aspect (shifting to a more 'team' based approach where people come together to work on specific projects), he's got this to say: More »

Ron Gilbert Joins Hothead For DeathSpank

Mike Fahey — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:40:41 EST

Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island veteran Ron Gilbert has signed on as Creative Director at Vancouver-based Hothead Games, with whom he will finally publish his long-awaited episodic RPG adventure, DeathSpank, which is described as "Monkey Island meets Diablo". If it indeed winds up as a combination of those two I may never need another video game or the love of a good woman again. Gilbert got to know the folks at Hothead while helping out on Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, and I suppose they just couldn't get him to leave afterwards.

Speaking from his secret game design cave, Ron Gilbert said, "I've spent over four years trying to find the right publisher for this strange little game. Now that I've done it, you just know that somewhere four horsemen are saddling up."

At least it'll be a humorous sort of apocalypse. More »

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

simonc — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:00:14 EST

After taking a look at what Peter Molyneux and Demis Hassabis were up to ten years ago, the final instalment of this 'how did their predictions turn out, a decade later' feature series asks some adventure game veterans. More »

Quests Chess Tells Kasparov To Try Another Piece

Mark Wilson — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:40:06 EST

Quests Chess is the product of an extremely talented point-n-click adventure game fanboy without many new adventure games to play. Apparently (and sadly) turning to chess to fill this void in his/her heart, "BioJ" crafted this chess set from Fimo clay. With star appearances from Monkey Island, Simon the Sorcerer, Roger Wilco and Day of the Tentacle (plus who are we missing here?), we only wish that we had the correct items in our pocket to click upon the board in proper celebration. Alas, we have but a crank, some fishing wire and a hamster with hypothermia. More pics after the jump. More »